Michigan
21-11, 8-11
Michigan State
17-12, 8-11
Michigan Loses State Pride Series to Michigan State
11/22/2006 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- The University of Michigan volleyball team lost the State Pride series to Michigan State for the first time in five seasons on Wednesday (Nov. 22), falling 3-0 (30-27, 30-18, 30-22) at Jenison Field House. Freshman Veronica Rood (Temperance, Mich./Bedford) turned in 11 kills as the only Wolverine to crack double digits in terminations in a Spartan rout.
Michigan fell to 20-12 (7-12 Big Ten), while Michigan State improved to 18-11 (9-10 Big Ten). Junior Katie Bruzdzinski (Naperville, Ill./Naperville North) failed to hit double-digit kills for the first time in 45 matches, finishing with eight terminations.
Michigan and Michigan State fought through 16 ties in game one, with both teams controlling the match for portions of the action. Michigan led up to the 10-10 mark, where MSU took over until the Wolverines fought back to take control once again at 25-24. The Spartans kicked off a 3-0 run to take a 27-25 lead that was only halted by fifth-year senior Erin Penn's (Dexter, Mich./Dexter) second kill of the night, making it 27-26, but the Spartans strung together back-to-back points to force game point, 29-26. The Wolverines stayed alive with a Spartan attack error to make it 29-27, but Michigan State struck for the final kill to win game one, 30-27
Michigan and Michigan State knotted it up five times to the 7-7 point in game two before the Spartans took complete control of the period. Bruzdzinski was held to just one kill in the period, while Spartan outsides Ashley Schatzle and Katie Johnson combined for 13 kills to take control of the game. State built a 16-11 lead, forcing Michigan to burn both of its timeouts, then romped to a 30-18 victory to take a 2-0 games lead into the intermission.
The Wolverines kept game three close, tying up the game at 11-11 before the floodgates swung open on an 11-3 MSU run. Michigan called two timeouts to try and stop the bleeding, but the 22-14 deficit proved to be too much to overcome. The Spartan attack continued to stymie every Michigan attempt to gain momentum, with Schatzle, Johnson and Vanessa King combining for 16 kills in the final game.
Michigan will wrap up the regular season at Iowa on Saturday (Nov. 25) at 7 p.m. CST in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
N O T E S
Fifth-year senior Erin Penn moved into third place on U-M's all-time matches played list, competing in her 124th match with the Maize and Blue.
Junior Katie Bruzdzinski moved past Karen Chase (1995-98) into third place on the Michigan all-time kills list with 1,264. Bruzdzinski trails director of volleyball operations Erin Moore (2000-03) for second place by 120 kills.
Contact: Richard Retyi (734) 763-4423
